As Simple As "Just Makin' Shots Man"

The Thunder won big last Saturday because their shots were falling, lost on Monday because they weren’t and won big again last night because their shots were dropping through the nets again.

Really? I mean seriously KD you had the worst shooting night of your career Monday night and then last night the only thing different was seeing shots fall in instead of clang away?

“I just made shots, nothing more than that,” Kevin Durant told a group of mystified reporters after the Thunder’s 131-102 win that put them up 2-1 in the series. “I was able to get to my spots and knock ‘em down.”

Durant has said this sort of thing before and he again, like he has said before, told the media he didn’t change anything from what has been his normal routine for years.

“When I go out there and play well I don’t throw a party for myself afterwards so when I play terrible I’m not gonna change anything up, not gonna feel sorry for myself, I’m just gonna go out there and do the same things I’ve been doing.” Durant said and he said again he doesn’t plan on changing that.

"I’m gonna continue to stick to what I do and approach the game the same way and things will change for me.”

The Thunder’s other superstar was sitting right beside Durant and Russell Westbrook didn’t have a particularly good night shooting the ball in that Game 2 loss either. He also bounced back big time with 26 points on 9-for-16 shooting overall and 2-for-3 on threes.

So Russ, how bout you? It can’t really, seriously JUST be about sometimes the shots fall and sometimes they don’t, can it? Is that all it is??

Westbrook cracked a bit of a grin and said probably what everyone figured he would, “It’s just makin’ shots man, simple as that. Tonight shots fell for us.”

Indeed they did, 57.7 percent of the Thunder’s shots ripped through the nets. The other night in OKC a higher percentage than that bounced off the rim.

Leave it to the head coach to provide a little bit more insight into maybe why more shots fell in Dallas last night than dropped in Oklahoma City on Monday night.

“Our spacing was much better than in the last game,” Billy Donovan pointed out. “We got the ball out quickly which was good and Kevin made some really good decisions with the ball, as did Russell.”

The Thunder only had 14 turnovers (their fewest of the series) while handing out 28 assists, Westbrook had 15 of those.

The Thunder also got to the free throw line more times last night than on Monday and that always helps. Durant was 9-for-11 at the stripe, Westbrook 6-for-9 and Enes Kanter, who had 21 points, was 8-for-10.

And the threes were dropping too. OKC hit 15 of them, the most ever by a Thunder team in the playoffs. Dion Waiters splashed four long balls, Durant hit three, Westbrook and Serge Ibaka each hit a pair and even Kanter, Josh Huestis, Andre Roberson and Randy Foye all hit a shot from beyond the arc.

Westbrook summed everything up like this:

“Guys did their job, we played Thunder basketball and the shots fell.”